Placerites District
Overview
Other Names: Rabbit Hole, Placeritas
County: Pershing
Commodities: gold, copper
Comments
Located in low hills in T32-33N, R29-30E on the west side of the Lovelock-Sulphur road, adjacent to Rabbit Hole Creek and southeast of Rabbit Hole Springs.
References
Lincoln, 1923, p. 212; Stoddard, 1932, p. 78; Vanderburg, 1936a, p. 146; Johnson, 1977, p. 76
Placerites Placer District Description
Location
In the low hills southeast of the central Kamma Mountains and northeast of the north end of the Seven Troughs Range, at the corner of Tps. 32 and 33 N., Rs. 29 and 30 E.
Topographic Maps
Lovelock 2-degree sheet, Army Map Service.
Geologic Maps
Tatlock, 1969, Preliminary geologic map of Pershing County, Nevada, scale 1:200,000.
Access
From Lovelock, 18 miles west on State Highway 48 to junction with light-duty road leading north toward Sulphur along the east flank of the Seven Troughs Range. From this junction, it is about 39 miles north to Placerites area.
Extent
Placers in the Placerites district are in a small area of gravel hills adjacent to Rabbit Hole Creek on the northeast, about 8 miles southeast of Rabbit Hole. An unpublished map of T. 32 N., Rs. 29 and 30 E., and T. 33 N., R. 30 E., prepared by the Southern Pacific Company shows that most work was concentrated around the southern and east- ern outer edges of the gravel hills. Placer gravels worked in small shallow ravines were 18 inches to 6 feet thick and rested on a bedrock composed of slates and shales. Most of the gold recovered is coarse.
Production History
The Placerites district was first worked in the early 1870's (some reports state 1850's) by "Mahogany Jack" and his three partners, who reportedly recovered $30,000 in gold. In the 1890's, placer miners hauled the gravels to Rabbit Hole Spring, about 9 miles northwest. Production during this time is unknown. The deposits were apparently not worked again until after 1928 and then intermittently until the present.
The quantity of gold recovered from numerous small dry-wash operations each year has not been large. The Nevada-Montana Co. worked part of the company's 4,160 acres of claims in 1931 with a dragline scraper, but did not report the gold recovery. In 1969, Mr. Stanley held 28 placer claims in the district which were developed by an opencut 1,000 feet long and 25 feet wide and mostly from 6 to 10 feet deep, although the deepest part was 25 feet (R. C. Reeves, written commun., 1971).
Source
Unknown. The hills are composed of gravels possibly as old as late Tertiary (as mapped by Tatlock, 1969), and the placers were prob- ably derived from these older gravels. The coarseness of the placer gold indicates primary derivation from a nearby bedrock source, possibly underlying the older gravels.
Literature
Engineering and Mining Journal, 1931: Reports placer-mining operations by Nevada Montana Co.
Nevada Mining Press, 1929: Reports construction of reservoir by Nevada Montana Mining Co.; discusses source of gold; states that no trace of gold veins has been found in the vicinity of the placers.
Vanderburg, 1936a: Location; history and early production; placer- mining activity and operations during the period 1928-35; depth of gravel worked; size and fineness of gold; problems in placer mining. 1936b: Early placer production; placer-mining development; depth of gold-bearing gravel; fineness of gold; size of large nugget; placer-mining operations in 1936.
